Saturday, May 2, 2015

Slit Seeding Greens

Every off season during the Winter months I evaluate the previous year's operation and look for ways to improve.  While taking in all successes and struggles there is always something to learn and grow from.  Spring of 2014 is something I wouldn't wish on anyone in the turf industry as the ice damage created a lot of extra effort to reestablish turf and still allow the course to be somewhat playable.  During the evaluation over this past winter one glaring thought repeatedly entered my mind.....WE NEED MORE BENTGRASS!  The ice damage scenario did create an opportunity to incorporate Bentgrass into our otherwise Poa filled greens and opened my eyes to the steps we need to take as we move forward into the future.

           
Ice damage from Winter 2014

There are a few things we can do to increase the population of Bentgrass within our greens and that needs to be a focus of our efforts.  Cultural practices, environment, & water management are three of the major factors that can limit Bentgrass and/or promote Poa. While evaluating this winter, I focused on these three factors.  Cultural practices performed by the Grounds Department is driven by sound agronomic knowledge that promotes bentgrass but at the same time allows for the existing Poa to give a sound playing surface.  Over the years these practices has increased the Bentgrass population but not to the extent needed to prevent issues such as ice encasement.  The two major factors that will determine our success of increasing the Bentgrass population lies within the environment and water management.  Sunlight & air movement are two simple environmental issues that can aid greatly in limiting Poa and allowing Bentgrass to have a fighting chance.  Tree removals around each green complex will allow morning sunlight and increase air movement.  Water Management has two major factors with either our ability to apply irrigation properly and our ability to remove water during times of heavy rainfall.  Our irrigation system issues are well documented and is a limiting factor as some of the out dated equipment either doesn't apply the irrigation water uniformly  or operates without notice.  Water removal via drainage is really a non factor with the age of our greens but drainage is something we can invest in moving forward to allow the excess water to be removed from the soil profile allowing for the proper growing environment within the root zone.
 
Slit seeding of greens

          
Topdressing greens
 


Cultural  practices can and will be adjusted beginning this Spring.  Slit seeding Bentgrass which was performed last Spring to reestablish our greens from the ice damage will become part of our Spring cultural maintenance routine.  Equipment resources were obtained this past winter to allow us the recreate those same efforts of incorporating Bentgrass into our greens less the ice damaged brown turf of last year.  Beginning the week of May 4th, we will begin this process on all the greens followed by a heavy topdressing.  During the 1-2 weeks following the process, the greens will be open for play with no restrictions but during this period of seed establishment the greens will be a little slower than normal as we limit our maintenance activities.  The proactive approach we are taking can only help Idlewild improve as we move forward into the future.  Any questions please feel free to reach out to me and as always thanks for the constant support from the membership.